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Mood: Cool ]
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Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Let me just start by saying, I love Barry Lyga. His books Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl, Boy Toy and Goth Girl Rising are intense, well written stories about modern teens facing modern issues. But his books tend to be aimed at the older teens, meaning that they are not right for my Grade 8 students. So when I saw he had written a book for late junior and intermediate I had to read it.
Thanks to his pranks, Kyle is the most popular kid in town. He has managed to prank everyone, his teachers, his peers and the police. He was setting up one of those pranks when the plasma storm hit. He was knocked unconscious and woke up three days later smarter, invulnerable to pain and able to fly.
And he’s not the only one. A teenager was found after the storm, suffering from amnesia and possessing powers similar to Kyle’s. Mike, as the boy comes to be known, quickly becomes the most popular kid in town, displacing Kyle. This makes Kyle very jealous, and he begins to plan a pranks to expose Mike as the fake he thinks he is.
Unfortunately, these pranks quickly get out of hand, and Kyle is painted as a villain who is out to hurt all. Can Kyle convince the town that Mike isn’t the goody two-shoes he seems? Can he avoid capture by the authorities as he learns to master his own powers.
This book was a difficult read, because it was quite obvious to me that Kyle is a self-centred, jerk who can’t handle his demotion to second banana in the kids eyes. And it was hard to have any sympathy for him, and when you can’t empathize with the main character, it makes reading a book a tough slog. Too bad, because author Barry Lyga has proved before that he is a very competent author who is not afraid to deal with tough topics head on, treating his readers with a respect and maturity that many others lack.